It’s luck of draw for elite schools
Brooklyn mom Lily Hom raised three sons to share her passion for math — and they excel in it. All three boys are also professional models and actors.
So her middle son, fifth-grader Tavian, planned to apply to the city’s Mark Twain Intermediate School for the Gifted & Talented in two of its many “talent areas” — math and drama.
But now, under new admission policies announced by Mayor de Blasio, Tavian, 10, won’t get into the high-performing Coney Island school unless he’s picked in a random lottery.
His mom is “dumbfounded and disheartened,” she told The Post.
“It’s strictly luck. It’s no longer based on talent,” said Hom, who has degrees in economics and math from NYU. She has nurtured her sons’ love of math and made learning it a focal point of their family life.
“In my mind, this upcoming year will be a sham,” she said of the mayor’s decision.
Normally, Tavian, a straight-A student, would have to pass a Mark Twain math test and wow the judges in a drama audition by performing a monologue.
Now, his math skills and acting ability won’t matter.
Chancellor Richard Carranza told parents in a Dec. 18 letter, “Middle schools will not use academic records, auditions, or other screens or assessments to evaluate or admit students this year.”
The revolutionary shift applies to nearly 200 middle schools — 40 percent of all middle schools under the Department of Education — which for years have “screened” students for admission based on standardized test scores, GPA, attendance, disciplinary records, interviews and other special assessments. These middle schools have catapulted kids into the city’s top high schools.
But this year, the state math and English tests were canceled, failing grades were prohibited, and attendance didid not count — all because of the COVID-19 health and economic crisis.
Carranza, whose own daughter attended San Francisco’s top screened public high school, has called screens “immoral.” Amid the pandemic, the practice is “unfair, unequal, and untenable to continue,” his letter said.
The fallout is sharply divided.
Many parents have begun a let-ter-writing campaign demanding officials overturn the mayor’s middleschool decision. “Telling children their academic future should be left up to a lottery is insulting,” the letters repeat. “No more auditions for performing arts schools? Why? It just seems cruel.”
Teens Take Charge called elimination of middle-school screens “a baby step” toward educational equality. Other groups applaud the move to eliminate screens because many kids of color have suffered and fallen behind due to COV ID-19.
Alina Adams, a mom of three who runs the Web site NYC School Secrets, said schools accustomed to cherry-picking the highest-performing students face a major challenge. About half of city kids are not doing math or reading at grade level. “Teachers who have taught accelerated and honors programs are not used to working with children who need catching up,” she said. “Schools are not prepared.” De Blasio, whose son and daughter attended selective middle and high schools, left it up to 126 screened high schools to keep, relax or remove their admission criteria voluntarily — for now. But priorities for kids who live in a school’s district will permanently end this year, and all geographic priorities will be eliminated in two years. “Removing barriers in our school system promotes excellence an increase access for all students, giving every child in New York City more opportunities to succeed,” DOE spokeswoman Katie O’Hanlon said in a statement.